AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'A Web of Friendship is a collection of Christina Stead's intimate correspondence with influential literary figures such as Stanley Burnshaw, Ettore Rella, Nettie Palmer, Clem Christesen, Elizabeth Harrower and A.D. Hope.
'These letters span the life of one of Australia's most illustrious writers, offering a rare insight into the relationships that influenced and sustained her work. They reveal Stead's reflections on the art of literature, the development of her political thought, and the significance of a handful of friendships that would endure throughout her life and career.
'The letters cover Stead's arrival in England in 1928, as well as her time abroad in Europe and the United States. They also detail her marriage to William Blake, their life in England where they settled in 1953, as well as her brief return to Australia and her final years in England following Blake's death.' (Publication summary)
Contents
- Introduction, single work criticism
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
'A Transfiguration of My Local Patriotism' : Christina Stead, the Figure of Oceanic Totality and 'A Night on the Indian Ocean'
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 62 no. 2 2017; (p. 87-99)'In a late interview with Rodney Wetherell (1979), when she was back in Australia and being interviewed rather more frequently in light of her rather belated status as a great Australian writer, Christina Stead found an intriguing way to deal with the equally frequent questions about the reasons for her expatriation to Europe in 1928. She implied that to be Australian was to be always already a citizen of the sea. Her conflation of national identity and the critical geographical identity of the island continent allowed her to argue that there was no especial volition to 'going abroad'. Ina sense, Stead claimed that she had an automatic 'dual citizenship' drawn from a symbiotic relationship between her marine identity and her Australian one. Of course, therefore, one would travel by sea..' (Introduction)
-
'Christina Stead : A Web of Friendship, Selected Letters (1928–1973)' Edited by Ron Geering
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 391 2017; 'In her novel Jacob’s Room (1922), Virginia Woolf wrote: ‘For centuries the writing-desk has contained sheets fit precisely for the communication of friends. Masters of language have turned from the sheet that endures to the sheet that perishes ... and addressed themselves to the task of reaching, touching, penetrating the individual heart.’ (Introduction) -
The Rhetoric of Luck in Christina Stead's Letty Fox: Her Luck
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 28 no. 1 2014; (p. 111-122, 256) 'Morrison talks about the rhetoric of Luck in Christina Stead's Letty Fox: Her Luck (1946). The novel examines the terrain of female experience between the acquisition of sexual maturity and marriage. It is clear that the topoi of female survival and female ambition are central to this trilogy of books, and in Letty Fox: Her Luck, the framing questions of America and American politics complicate and extend these topoi. The anti-sentimental picaresque offered Stead an opportunity to return to the satirical energy that is so remarkable in House of All Nations (1938), to experiment with New York vernacular, and to anatomize various American dilemmas as she saw them: a materialistic and weak middle-class obsessed with easy success, the irritant of fake radicalism in the New York Left, and the irresistible rise and rise of gangster capitalism. Stead's use of "luck" highlights the episodic and contingent events that make up the life of her anti-heroine, but also provides a rhetorical focal point for her critique of sex and politics. "Luck" is a word at the heart of the novel's purpose as well as its action.' (Publication abstract) -
Christina Stead's Australia - "Easily the Largest Island"
1993
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 53 no. 1 1993; (p. 80-95) -
Life-Lines in Stormy Seas: Some Recent Collections of Women's Diaries and Letters
1993
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 16 no. 1 1993; (p. 3-13)
-
An Unexpected Glimpse of a Restless and Shy Author
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 6 June 1992; (p. 9)
— Review of A Web of Friendship : Selected Letters (1928-1973) 1992 selected work correspondence ; Talking into the Typewriter : Selected Letters (1973-1983) 1992 selected work correspondence -
A Dogged Devotion to Writing with Honesty
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 20 June 1992; (p. C9)
— Review of A Web of Friendship : Selected Letters (1928-1973) 1992 selected work correspondence ; Talking into the Typewriter : Selected Letters (1973-1983) 1992 selected work correspondence -
An Incorrigible Wordist Shares a Bit of Her World
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 June 1992; (p. rev 7)
— Review of A Web of Friendship : Selected Letters (1928-1973) 1992 selected work correspondence ; Talking into the Typewriter : Selected Letters (1973-1983) 1992 selected work correspondence -
The Ship of Life, Love
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 30 June vol. 114 no. 5826 1992; (p. 92-93)
— Review of A Web of Friendship : Selected Letters (1928-1973) 1992 selected work correspondence ; Talking into the Typewriter : Selected Letters (1973-1983) 1992 selected work correspondence -
An Exile 'Deep-Bitten' by Home
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 27 June 1992; (p. 38)
— Review of A Web of Friendship : Selected Letters (1928-1973) 1992 selected work correspondence -
Christina Stead's Australia - "Easily the Largest Island"
1993
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 53 no. 1 1993; (p. 80-95) -
Life-Lines in Stormy Seas: Some Recent Collections of Women's Diaries and Letters
1993
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 16 no. 1 1993; (p. 3-13) -
The Rhetoric of Luck in Christina Stead's Letty Fox: Her Luck
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 28 no. 1 2014; (p. 111-122, 256) 'Morrison talks about the rhetoric of Luck in Christina Stead's Letty Fox: Her Luck (1946). The novel examines the terrain of female experience between the acquisition of sexual maturity and marriage. It is clear that the topoi of female survival and female ambition are central to this trilogy of books, and in Letty Fox: Her Luck, the framing questions of America and American politics complicate and extend these topoi. The anti-sentimental picaresque offered Stead an opportunity to return to the satirical energy that is so remarkable in House of All Nations (1938), to experiment with New York vernacular, and to anatomize various American dilemmas as she saw them: a materialistic and weak middle-class obsessed with easy success, the irritant of fake radicalism in the New York Left, and the irresistible rise and rise of gangster capitalism. Stead's use of "luck" highlights the episodic and contingent events that make up the life of her anti-heroine, but also provides a rhetorical focal point for her critique of sex and politics. "Luck" is a word at the heart of the novel's purpose as well as its action.' (Publication abstract) -
'Christina Stead : A Web of Friendship, Selected Letters (1928–1973)' Edited by Ron Geering
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 391 2017; 'In her novel Jacob’s Room (1922), Virginia Woolf wrote: ‘For centuries the writing-desk has contained sheets fit precisely for the communication of friends. Masters of language have turned from the sheet that endures to the sheet that perishes ... and addressed themselves to the task of reaching, touching, penetrating the individual heart.’ (Introduction) -
'A Transfiguration of My Local Patriotism' : Christina Stead, the Figure of Oceanic Totality and 'A Night on the Indian Ocean'
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 62 no. 2 2017; (p. 87-99)'In a late interview with Rodney Wetherell (1979), when she was back in Australia and being interviewed rather more frequently in light of her rather belated status as a great Australian writer, Christina Stead found an intriguing way to deal with the equally frequent questions about the reasons for her expatriation to Europe in 1928. She implied that to be Australian was to be always already a citizen of the sea. Her conflation of national identity and the critical geographical identity of the island continent allowed her to argue that there was no especial volition to 'going abroad'. Ina sense, Stead claimed that she had an automatic 'dual citizenship' drawn from a symbiotic relationship between her marine identity and her Australian one. Of course, therefore, one would travel by sea..' (Introduction)
